Sanjuro (1962) by Akira Kurosawa

[cranefly]

A companion piece to Yojimbo where Mifune plays the same character, but here naming himself Sanjuro (he always gives his name as whatever he sees at the time, and here it is camelias (sanjuro means 30-year-old camelias).  Ever the jaded samurai, Sanjuro nonetheless decides to help a group of naive warriors weed out their clan's evil influences.

Again I'm impressed at how fully fleshed out Mifune's character is, snarling and full of swagger, but vulnerable, full of uncertainties, and he makes mistakes and is outwitted at times.  He shows an amazing range.

Takashi Shimura is aboard once more, but in a very small role.  He is definitely showing his age.

Tatsuya Nakadai, the smirking gun-toting villain of Yojimbo, here plays Hanbei, a master samurai in the evil faction of the clan.  He tries to recruit Sanjuro after seeing his swordsmanship, which Sanjuro plays to his advantage.  But when all is said and done, and the movie seems about to end with all resolved, the naive young warriors come upon Sanjuro and Hanbei in an isolated spot, preparing to fight.  The young warriors bear witness to a short but suspenseful fast-draw duel, which ends in a spectacular spray of blood.

I've seen that scene before, and likely the whole movie.  But that was back in my 20s, on a small black and white portable TV, likely when it aired on PBS.  I saw several great foreign films back then, on PBS, all introduced by Alistaire Cooke (who was merely old at the time).  Alistaire was always holding forth, on the proper pronunciation of Hiroshima, or how Chopin is pronounced like Japan, or the difference between harakiri and seppuku (and how they're pronounced).  For Sanjuro, I recall him pointing out the influence of American Westerns, and their gunfights, in Kurosawa's climax here.

Though I suspect I've seen it before, the movie was entirely fresh for me.  I mean, if you see a movie 40 years ago, does it really count?

Another great film, and with a great soundtrack.

[Drunk Monk]

My iaido sensei, Steve Anderson, who passed away recently (http://www.brotherhoodofdoom.com/doomFor...p?tid=5161) who also got me into Rock Med, was a pupil of Takahashi Sensei, who was one of the more colorful characters in those circles. I only met him a few times. He looked like a ronin, scraggly facial hair, long ponytail, oddly twitchy. He also made funny faces when he doing iaido, could drop into center splits cold, and made these odd paintings of women's faces - usually a yard across, just the face, in crude brush strokes. He restored that gunto that I got from Yeti (traded for a foil blade, was it?) but not quite with my permission. He said he wanted to look at it, and then brought it back 'restored' with a bill the following week. It wasn't much, and he did make it functional for iai, but I redid it later at AFS. Steve had a big break with him. It was so traumatic that Steve completely left from the martial world. I never knew the reason, but could see how that might have come to pass. Other scandals followed Takahashi, but I only heard of them second hand. I don't know if he's still alive.

Takahashi claimed that he choreographed that final fight, the reverse draw that ended so sanguineously. I never believed that claim, but he was adamant about it.

[cranefly]

Is that his full name, Takahashi Sensei, or is Sensei an honorific?  I'm just wondering if he has any imdb credits, or whether his claim comes from a darkly creative posterior place?

[Drunk Monk]

I never knew his full name. Sensei is the title. And even he claimed it was 'uncredited' so yeah, that ol' darkly creative posterior place. 

I never like him. He gave off this cultish vibe. My old SJSU Kendo circles questioned his lineage although they did acknowledge his skill. He was a good swordsman.